In an event Friday attended by California cannabis czar Lori Ajax and pro-cannabis Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher, faculty at the University of California, Irvine, announced plans to create an interdisciplinary cannabis research institute.

If the institute is launched, UC Irvine would join UC San Diego and UC Davis in studying cannabis.

Former Democratic State Senator Joe Dunn, who now lectures at UC Irvine’s School of Law, said the proposed institute would be independent and entirely research-based, not advocating for any particular position related to cannabis.

Piomelli said it’s been challenging to study cannabis due to its federal classification alongside heroin.

Piomelli said he wants to launch the institute within the next year. Piomelli said he hopes to get state funding through Proposition 64, last year’s measure that approved recreational cannabis use by adults over age 21.

Earlier this year, UC Davis’ Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology announced it’s designing a cannabis class for UC Davis medical school students, which will have a stronger emphasis on the plant’s medical relevance. In upcoming years, faculty at the School of Medicine hope to design a cannabis course intended for students of any major.

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